The Continental Currency "Dollar" of 1776: Introduction

The Continental Currency "Dollar" is one of the most frequently reproduced colonial era coins.

If you believe you have an original example of this coin click here for information on value and authentification.

Unfortunately little is known about the important and captivating coin called the Continental Dollar. The denomination of the coin is unknown, but Newman has surmised the value to be a dollar. The first four emissions of Continental paper currency from May 10, 1775, through May 6, 1776, included a dollar bill, but the one dollar denomination was missing from the next six emissions and does not reappear until the last regular emission of Continental paper currency from January 14, 1779. It is thought that this Continental coin was meant to replace the paper dollar in these emissions. Also, the coin was made to be about the same size as the Spanish milled dollar and, like the Spanish coin, had an edge design. However who authorized or minted the coins is unknown.

Interestingly, there are no records of this coin in the actions of the Continental Congress, although other coinage concerns were recorded. On April 19, 1776 the Congress appointed a committee to determine the value of several foreign coins in relation to the Spanish dollar and on February 20, 1777 a congressional treasury committee recommended a mint be established, but nothing further was done on this matter. To date there is no evidence the Continental Currency coins were authorized or issued by the Continental Congress. Indeed, Robert Morris, the Superintendant of Finance during the Confederation period, appears not to have known of the Continental Dollars as he called his 1783 Nova Constellation patterns the first that were, "struck as an American Coin." (Morris, Diary for April 2, 1783).

The images on the Continental Currency coin are based on the designs found on Continental Congress fractional currency from the emission of February
17, 1776, which were designed by Benjamin Franklin. In fact, Newman
has published Franklin's original drawing for the joined ring design on
the reverse of the coin. One variety of the coin (shown below) includes
the legend "EG FECIT", which is Latin for "EG made this".
Newman has identified 'EG' as Elisha Gallaudet, who had previously engraved
the design on the plates of the February 17, 1776, Continental fractional
currency. His coins were struck in three metals the most common being pewter,
with an estimated minting of about six thousand (of which a few hundred
survive); the others, struck in brass and silver, are much rarer, with fifteen
or so known examples in brass and four in silver. There are seven known
die combinations made from four obverse and two reverse dies, with one obverse die (Newman 1) containing a misspelling of currency as CURENCY and another (Newman 4) having the misspelling CURRENCEY. From a close
examination of the dies, Michael Hodder has demonstrated that the three
metals were not used sequentially but rather were randomly minted during
production. This suggests that the rare metal strikes were special presentation
pieces rather than trial or pattern pieces.

The location of the mint is unknown but is thought to have been New York
City. Articles referring to a Continental copper coin are found in
the New York Journal of June 27, 1776, and the New York
Gazette of July 1, 1776. In addition, the New York State paper currency emission of August
13, 1776, included four fractional notes as well as $2, $3, $5 and $10
bills, but like the Continental Congress emissions, did not include the
$1 note. Hodder proposes two groups of dies made by different die sinkers
and suggests that these two groups of coins may not have been minted in
the same location. Group one includes Newman obverse dies 1 and 2 with a
single reverse found in three different states listed by Newman as reverses A,
B and C. Group two consists of two obverse dies, Newman 3 and 4 (with Newman
obverse 5 being a recut of die 4) combined with one reverse die known as
Newman D.